La Dee-vina Comedia

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Agreed. You've made some good points here. Especially the one about being in the AFL bubble. I hope he has a successful post-AFL career and life, whether it requires any growing up or not.

He's 29. Does anyone "grow up" any further once they've reached this age?

Spare a thought for Jack Watts. If he hadn't broken his leg last year he may have well played in his first final last night. I suspect he's not the type of person to brood about missing out, but it would have been nice to see him rewarded for having to put up with all the criticism he received over the journey purely because he was selected number one in his year and in so doing went to a club which was incompetent at managing and developing him properly.

Perhaps WA police don't want to be seen to be "soft" on a figure in the public eye. It's much easier for them to handball the matter to the Court to decide and let the Magistrate wear any negative PR consequences. It's not dissimilar to the MRO transferring a matter to the AFL Tribunal to avoid having to make a potentially controversial decision.

You've got your characters confused. We've got Mitch Brown, not Charlie Brown. Unless you meant we trade Mitch Brown and Charlie Spargo.

Rather than start a new thread, I'm interested in whether people like the idea of a bye between the final home and away round and the first week of finals. My view is that it kills momentum. I have found that since this particular bye was introduced a few years ago that I have fundamentally lost interest in the whole competition every year due to the bye when we're not in the finals. I know it was introduced to overcome the problems associated with some teams resting players in the final round. I think there needs to be a more creative solution to that problem, such as suspending the senior coach of teams that do that for four rounds. I'm pretty sure that would work. Having said that, I think the AFL had no choice this year to have the bye. Because of the way the season panned out, they couldn't go into the finals without giving Essendon and Melbourne a break at this time of year. When setting the schedule they couldn't ignore the possibility that either or both these teams could be finalists. In summary, I'm all in favour of getting rid of the pre-finals bye. Any thoughts?

Including USA, Spain, UK, India and France doesn't really help the argument when you compare their infection numbers with Australia's. The real issue, which I suspect we will both agree with, is whether there is cause and effect. That is, has closing State borders actually made any difference?

Keep in mind that not every other country has "internal states". Nevertheless, ever since these cross-border lockdowns were introduced I've been waiting for Denis Denuto to take the case to the High Court to test the constitutionality of the matter. I guess in a way that's what Clive Palmer was doing...and he does seem like a character straight out of 'The Castle'.

I'm only interested if we can get Didak out of retirement to join him. Seriously, who's in the need of a 35 year old? Has to be someone contending for a flag in 2021 and needs a slow, but smart, running defender. And can't find someone better.

It's a WA law breach, not a specific AFL Covid rule breach (although the AFL procedures may include an obligation to follow State rules and laws).

While I agree 100% with your logic, I think the optics of this approach could reflect badly on the club. It may make us look more concerned about the fine than Bennell. I think we have to cop it on the chin and move on.

Perhaps we need to open a thread in the Trades sections suggesting we swap Hardwick's wife for Goodwin's partner. I'm not sure if we would have to include an assistant coach's partner as well to get the deal done.

My mistake. I was sure the season was 22 home and away rounds, precisely to ensure that every side played each other twice.

I assume you mean we played Collingwood twice in finals in 1964. In those days we also would have played two home and away games against Collingwood every year, with one at the MCG and the other at Victoria Park.

I am always amazed at how many players across the competition cannot kick half-decently on their non-preferred. That limits their ability because they often need to turn "the wrong way" to get into a position to kick. To his credit, Viney improved significantly in this area in 2020. However, watching Baker turn himself into knots trying to get onto his right foot reinforces the need for players like him to practise, practise, practise in the off season. Hopefully that left foot long-distance goal will give him some confidence and help him improve.

Watching the first 20 seconds or so of the game gives me some idea why the northern states used to describe the game as "aerial ping pong". I haven't had time to watch the whole thing, but I'll bet everyone who saw the footage of the Southern Cross Hotel at the 50 second mark immediately remembered one thing...the visit of The Beatles to Melbourne.

Just wondering about this. Where does the workplace start and finish for professional sports people subject to random drug testing. Don't they have to be available and notify where they are going to be at all times? As to Bennell, the mooted cut to list sizes and the soft cap (which will likely impact on resources such as pastoral care) would make it difficult for all clubs to keep players with off field issues, whether they are physical injuries or what I'll loosely or broadly call "psychological issues".

There are plenty of examples on the internet of the difference between data and information. Add this thread to the list.

The soft cap is also relevant. It might just swing the balance in favour of keeping a veteran player who can be an onfield assistant coach.

I suspect Johnson is there to "represent" Queensland, just as Tredrea "represents" SA and Jackovich WA. However, it is also worthwhile having an indigenous ex-player on the list of selectors, irrespective of where they are from. Having said that, does Johnson still live in Qld? I have a vague memory of reading about him now living and working in Victoria.

It's almost unbelievable that Flower was AA only twice. Then when you remember he played in rubbish teams for most of his career you realise how extraordinary it was that he actually got selected as an AA twice.

I assume, possibly incorrectly, that some others might have some trade value. After trading is complete, I could see some more delistings. I also suspect Jones will retire. Hopefully that's the language used rather than "not offered a contract" or "delisted", although the effect on our list would be the same. Similarly, even though he is apparently contracted for one more year, I wouldn't be surprised if Jetta also retires.

Really disappointing that he played over 170 games and never played in a final. That's an indictment on the MFC, not Jack Watts. (Ditto Lynden Dunn, assuming he retires at the end of the season...unless he plays another game this year.)

The AA selectors have been criticised previously for squeezing in players in positions they don't belong meaning others miss out. The classic example is placing "excess" midfielders on the wings so specialist wingmen miss out. I seem to recall the AFL stating that this year the AA selectors will choose a real team with players best suited for their positions. If that's to be the case and Natinui is selected as the best ruckman, someone should be selected to be a second ruck for the one-third of the game he doesn't play. That could be Gawn. On the other hand, the selectors could select Gawn who plays 93% (?) of each game and not worry about a second ruckman. That would then allow them to pick an extra (midfielder, defender, etc) on the bench.